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Plans
Underway to Expand Recycled Water Project; First Season Hailed as a
Success News Release from the South Bayside System Authority Plans are underway to expand the "First Step Recycled Water Project" to include three private customers along with the City of Redwood City’s Parks Department when the second season begins next spring, it was announced today. The "First Step Recycled Water Project" was launched in August, delivering recycled water generated from the South Bayside System Authority (SBSA) plant to irrigate several landscaped sites owned by the City at the end of Redwood Shores through mid-November. The irrigated areas included median strips, parking strips, greenbelts, and other areas managed by the City’s Parks Department. The two-year project’s main goal is to create Redwood City’s model for a long-term recycled water program, which will provide guidance for planning, constructing and operating a permanent recycled water system in the future, reports Redwood City Public Works Services Director Peter Ingram. Ingram’s staff over the next several weeks will contact owners of private offices, apartment complexes or home owner associations who have either have sites adjacent to recycled water main lines, or expressed an interest in joining the "First Step’s" second irrigation season, which will begin in May or June. Redwood City Parks Manager Valerie Matonis and SBSA Manager Jim Bewley hailed the first irrigation season as a success. "We enjoyed excellent water quality, reliably delivered with ample pressure," said Matonis. "The plant material in our landscapes is thriving, including our turf areas, and our grounds crew is very enthusiastic about our continuing participation in the second season." Besides providing about 850,000 gallons of recycled water per month to the Parks Department, the first season also provided 6.5 million gallons of recycled water to create a 20-acre pond-like environment in the SBSA’s buffer zone property on Radio Road. "The pond was intended to provide aesthetic enjoyment, and did it ever, attracting species of birds that we previously had not seen around the SBSA plant," said Bewley. Literally hundreds of birds splashed merrily in the pond. That portion of the buffer property, purchased by SBSA in 1997 as a protection against intruding development, previously was unadorned land. Bewley said that recycled water is wastewater that has been processed through treatment for beneficial reuse following the strict standards of the California State Department of Health Services. Ingram reported that the First-Step objectives over the two irrigation seasons are:
The Regional Water Quality Control Board, as a condition of SBSA’S NPDES permit for expansion issued in 1997, encouraged the SBSA to play a leadership role in water recycling. As a result, SBSA budgeted funds as part of its expansion program to implement a "first step water recycling" project. The City of Redwood City is interested in the long-term use of recycled water as a "drought proof" strategy for developing a new water supply and reducing total demand on the San Francisco Hetch Hetchy regional system, Ingram said |
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